


Help Me Piece It all Together

by EveryDayBella



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 08:38:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18442958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryDayBella/pseuds/EveryDayBella
Summary: Someday, when he touched his soulmate, the black would fade away to reveal the mark underneath. Just like had happened to Jordie and Daddy.Someday. Maybe.Tyler wished that someday would show up.





	Help Me Piece It all Together

**Author's Note:**

> I started so many fics for the bennguinfest. Most of them went nowhere. One of them is massive OT3 that I'm still working on. I was hoping for something bigger but this is what I have. The soulmate was a least fun to do. Picturing Jamie with green hair just like mine made me really happy no lie. 
> 
> Thanks to Eafay70 for the beta work and please enjoy!
> 
> Title from Quarter Past Midnight by Bastille.

Jordie had a pretty mark. It was dark lines tracing the line of a swallow in flight. It had come in after Jason’s arm had hit his neck during a celly. There was a nest and chicks on Jason’s arm now that everyone chirped him for. 

 

It really wasn’t the kind of thing that Tyler should have been thinking about in the dead of night on the way back to Dallas from Nashville. He should have been asleep like everything else. Rads’ head was on Dobby’s shoulder. Brett was snoring on the seat behind him. There was very little movement. They were exhausted and still had things to do. 

 

Jamie was asleep in the window seat next to him. He’d turned to put his back on the cabin wall and the side of his head against the seat. His plush lips were parted in sleep, hair falling in his face. He hadn’t gelled it after the game so it was all over really. There was an itch in Tyler’s fingers to gently push it away, but he knew better. It was enough that Jamie was next to him. His friend. His captain. 

 

Tyler sighed, looking away, but eyes getting caught on his inky black palm. It looked like he’d inked the full length of his palm, tip of his fingers to the start of his wrist, tattooed solid black, but it was something more. Someday, when he touched his soulmate, the black would fade away to reveal the mark underneath. Just like had happened to Jordie and Daddy. 

 

Someday. Maybe. 

 

Tyler wished that someday would show up. 

 

It wasn’t that he was lonely or looking to settle down. He was happy enough with his life, with the place he was in his life. It wasn’t that he wanted some mysterious soulmate to walk out of the shadows and into his life. It was more …

 

It was more he wanted to look at Jamie and not hurt anymore. He wanted to look at him and not want desperately to tuck himself against Jamie’s body and just stay there. He wanted all of Jamie’s smiles for himself. He wanted to wake up next him, fall asleep next to him, and just everything with him. 

 

He wanted Jamie to be his soulmate. He wanted Jamie to change his palm from black to something else. 

 

But Jamie couldn’t be his soulmate. He couldn’t be anyone's soulmate. He didn’t have a spot. There was no black bit where his soulmate would touch and reveal the mark like Tyler’s palm or Jordie’s neck. 

 

He didn’t know if he thought Jamie was lucky or sad. 

 

Tyler supposed he was in love with Jamie and had been for a long time. Maybe since the first time he landed in Dallas. 

 

In the dark of the night on the plane he could indulge a little bit. He could afford it, let it wash over him and pretend just a bit that he could have this. 

 

He reached out and brushed the thick strands out of Jamie’s face. They were soft against his fingers and Tyler had always wanted to get his fingers in them. Jamie usually gelled the black strands into submission. It was rare to see it down and soft. Tyler’s heart squeezed painfully in his chest as he brushed locks behind Jamie’s ear and leaned away. 

 

The light in the cabin wasn’t much more than creating shadows, but even with limited light Tyler saw something glistening in the strands of hair that he had just touched. Something sparkled amid the black and as Tyler watched it steadily deepen. The black gave way slowly to a vibrant green. 

 

Tyler blinked. There was no reason Jamie’s hair should be changing colors. Maybe he just needed more sleep. Unless…

 

Tyler flipped on an overhead light and looked at his palm. The black patch was going fuzzy around the edges, hinting at shapes hiding below and turning, slowly, green. 

 

Tyler tried again - an experiment, he supposed. Jamie’s hair was still soft and somehow right against his fingers. Where he touched, the black gave way to green and bits of silver. When he looked at his palm, there was more of his black giving away to the shapes of stars in a brilliant sea of green. There was even bits of silver matching Jamie’s. 

 

Tyler couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. Of all the times he had dreamed of his mark coming in, it hadn’t been on the team plane after a hard game with his best friend. His best friend that he’d been in love with for years without saying anything. 

 

“Jamie,” Tyler said softly, afraid to wake him up, but not having another option. He could hide his hand, but there was going to be no hiding Jamie’s hair. Tyler hoped that was okay. Maybe Jamie would hate his mark. He’d spent his whole life thinking he didn’t even have one. “Jamie, wake up.”

 

The other man grunted and wiggled a little bit before cracking one eye open. “What’s wrong, Seggy?”

 

“You really need to see this.”

 

Jamie groaned and sat up enough to rub his eyes. “What?”

 

Tyler grabbed his phone, inverted the camera, and shoved it under Jamie’s nose. It took Jamie a moment to notice, then his eyes went wide. He hestantly brushed the wayward strands that were already turning green, something like horror in his eyes. 

 

“The fuck did the rookies do to my hair?”

 

“It wasn’t them.” Tyler’s heart was in his throat as he exposed his palm. Jamie grabbed it, pulling it close so he could see better. His calluses were rough against Tyler’s skin and surprisingly gentle. Tyler bit his lips against a moan. 

 

“This is your mark. Tyler, how did you expose your mark? Who is it?”

 

Tyler couldn’t tell what Jamie’s tone meant. Was he hopeful? Sad? Impressed? Tyler was too nervous to reply, but pulled his hands away and carefully took a handful of black hair. The green and silver spread out from Tyler’s fingers. After a moment, Tyler let go and showed his palm again. Swirls of green and white and silver, dotted with stars. A galaxy printed on his skin by destiny, marking him as Jamie’s forever.

 

Jamie’s eyes were wide as he fingered the formerly black hair. It should have been absurd, his emerald hair sparkling like a night sky, but Tyler couldn’t help but love it, and hoped that Jamie did, too. He was too beautiful for words. 

 

“Your mark and my hair,” Jamie said, like he was trying to make two plus two equal eight. “How?”

 

“I, um, don’t know,” Tyler replied in whispers, his palm cradled between them. “It was an accident, I swear. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to. That can probably get covered up. I’m sorry.”

 

“Wait. Why are you sorry?”

 

“’Cause I figured that you wouldn’t be happy with this?”

 

Jamie took his hand, traced the shapes of stars and sent tremors up his arms. Green and silver hair was falling in his face and Tyler’s heart was hammering in his chest. He was waiting, just waiting for Jamie to say something. Anything. 

 

And when he finally did, it broke Tyler’s heart.

 

“I thought I couldn’t have a soulmate because there was something wrong with me. ’Cause somehow I was unlovable. I’m not quite sure I can believe that the one person I wanted to be my soulmate is.”

 

Tyler whimpered. Jamie should never have had to think that. He’d loved him since he landed in Dallas, barely holding himself together. Even without a mark, he would probably have loved him until they were old and hockey ruined. Jamie was good and he deserved better than what Tyler had to give. He slid his palm around Jamie’s cheek, watching as his big, brown eyes fluttered shut. 

 

“What if I said that I love you, too, and there was no one else I would rather have but you?”

 

“I’d tell you to get over here and kiss me already.”

 

Tyler never had to be told twice. 


End file.
